Intensive Legal Research & Writing

This intensive seminar provides students with the opportunity to refresh and update their research and writing skills. Skills reviewed will include the identification, analysis, citation and presentation of authorities; and standard research techniques, tools, and concepts, such as noting-up, controlled subject vocabularies, digests, and boolean searching. We will review the formats and media used to publish legal information, including commercial databases, open access web sites, and print. Additional topics covered will include the publishing and record-keeping practices of the major decision-makers, rule-makers, lobbyists, interest groups, etc.; the publishing and business activities of the significant commercial and non-profit disseminators of information and libraries; and the institutionalization of research activity in law firms, government and academia.